Portable devices (such as wireless communication devices, wireless sensors, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices) are often battery powered to provide mobility and convenience. Reducing the power consumption of wireless communication devices may extend battery life and thereby increase the time between battery recharging or replacement.
Wireless communication devices may receive transmitted radio frequency (RF) signals and perform one or more processing steps to recover transmitted data. The quality of the received RF signal may vary widely based on, for example, operating and/or environmental conditions. For example, if a wireless receiver and transmitter are near each other, then the received signal quality may be high and the transmitted data may be easy to recover. On the other hand, if the wireless receiver and transmitter are far apart, or if one or more signal blockers exist between the wireless receiver and transmitter, then the received signal quality may be low, and the transmitted data may be difficult to recover.
Wireless receivers may include receivers that accommodate a wide range of RF signals. However, recovering transmitted data from a high-quality RF signal may be easier and may require less power than recovering transmitted data from a low quality RF signal. Therefore, wireless receivers may expend more power than necessary when receiving and processing higher quality RF signals. Thus, there is a need to reduce the power consumption of wireless RF receivers without decreasing operating bandwidth.